Amazon.com Review
Donna Jo Napoli's fiction for teens often puts a contemporary twist on old fairy tales, offering new depth and psychological insight. In previous young adult novels she has retold "Hansel and Gretel" from the point of view of the witch (
The Magic Circle) and the story of "Rapunzel" from a multitude of perspectives (
Zel), and has turned the tale of "Rumpelstiltskin" inside out (
Spinners). Here she follows the traditional story of "Jack and the Beanstalk" pretty closely--the cow traded for magic beans, the vast beanstalk reaching up a cliff, and the cannibalistic giant chanting "Fee, fi, fo, fum" are all present. But Napoli enriches the tale with a romance between Jack and a neighbor girl and the mysterious disappearance of Jack's father, all told in vibrant poetic language and studded with authentic details of country life in the 1500s. On another level, she adds resonance to the narrative by creating an oedipal dimension--a disturbing buried suggestion that the devouring giant is a dangerous aspect of Jack's otherwise loving father. In the same manner, the giant's wife, who feeds Jack luscious food and hides him from the giant, recalls his own mother in the aspect of temptress. All this is very subliminal, but even younger readers will feel the mythological power as they devour this exciting story. (Ages 10 to 14)
--Patty Campbell
From Publishers Weekly
Revisiting Jack and the Beanstalk, Napoli (Spinners) makes the plot bleaker but the message inspirationalAan uneasy mix that reduces rather than expands the impact of the familiar story. Jack is nine when his father gambles away the family farm and later accidentally steps off a cliff to his death. The narrative then skips ahead seven years. Jack batters himself unconscious in a yearly attempt to climb that same cliff; it is to his madness that his mother attributes his famous exchange of their cow for magic beans. As in Beneduce and Spirin's version (see their Jack and the Beanstalk, reviewed above), this giant is complicit in Jack's father's death, but there are a number of innovations. Jack hopes to win back the love of his childhood sweetheart, Flora, whose purity stands in sharp contrast to the woman in the giant's castle, here a lascivious sort who cares more for riches than for freedom. Much is made of following one's dreams: e.g., the fairy who gives Jack the magic beans urges him to stay true to his love of farming. The stolen treasures lose their luxury once Jack comes back to earthAthe hen (no, not a goose) remains a prolific layer but of ordinary (not golden) eggs, the lyre becomes an instrument for Jack ("I play a freedom song for the woman of the castle"). It is no surprise when Flora leaves her materialistic suitor for Jack with his good values. Napoli has made an odd trade of her own, swapping the boundlessness of archetypal fantasy for a touch of piety. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
by Donna Jo Napoli
by Donna Jo Napoli
by Donna Jo Napoli
by Donna Jo Napoli
by Donna Jo Napoli
